Sony's presentation at GamesCom certainly could not be accused of being too focussed.

It seemed at times dedicated to giving every game available for the PlayStation 4 45 seconds of attention, before dropping in a langeur where Dean Hall announced the heavily trailed PS4 launch of Day Z, or Hideo Kojima, appearing at his first GamesCom, delivered what must surely be an extended troll of recent criticisms of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes' attitude to women, involving the tactical use in Metal Gear Solid V of a cardboard box with a life-sized picture of a scantily-clad woman glued to it.

While
Microsoft's presentation was a series of hearty meals - not much that was new, barring the hard-to-swallow announcement of Tomb Raider's platform exclusivity - Sony's was more like a tasting menu. It was dusted with more or less filling smidgeons of new IPs - Q Games' bewildering The Tomorrow Children (is it a crafting game? An RTS? A Brutal Legend-like hybrid? An undiagnosed skull fracture?)

Hidetaki Miyazaki's Bloodborne, Mike Bithell's Volumeand Ruffian Games' cyberpunk shooter Hollowpoint all featured, mixed in with announcements of the PAL roll-out of PlayStation TV and the upcoming UK beta of PlayStation Now in advance of a European rollout in 2015.

However, the event closed with three new games, which certainly help to illustrate the diversity of the product
Sony is offering.

Tearaway Unfolded

Rex Crowe of Media Molecule, in a rare example of a presentation that actually told the viewer something about the process of game creation rather than simply how rocking their game was, talked about the difficulties of converting Tearaway, an outstanding critical success on the PlayStation Vita, for the PS4. The tactile experience is absolutely key to Tearaway, and it was a system-seller for the way it utilised the Vita's interface to simulate folding and tearing its paper-based reality.

The relationship of a game controller and big screen changed that simulation, to the point, Crowe explained, that the game had to be reengineered. One example demonstrated by producer Michelle Ducker was the ability to catch the attention of Atoi, one of the two playable characters, using the light on the DualShock 4 controller, and have her throw an object out of the screen and "into" the controller, making it vibrate and emit sound.

While some of the inputs of the PlayStation 4's default controller are relatable to the Vita - most obviously the analog sticks - other parts are very different. The mechanic in which the player could push the ground upwards by pressing fingers against the rear touch pad, for example, would no longer make sense.

Based on past achievements, Tearaway Unfolded may not only be a successful adaptation of a successful Vita game, but help to make the case for parts of the PlayStation 4's interface, such as the front light and the touchpad, that are currently often superfluous.

Sony had also earlier trailed LittleBigPlanet 3, being developed by Sumo Digital, which will be able to use the 8.5 million already existing user-generated levels created by the LittleBigPlanet community, while introducing new characters and features.

Alienation

The contrast between the happy, papercraft world of Tearaway and Alienation, the upcoming game from Housemarque that followed it, could hardly be more profound. Resogun was one of the most praised launch games for the PS4, but Alienation is more in the style of Dead Nation - a four-player multiplayer twin-stick shooter in which players blast through wave after wave of, in this case, aliens.

Housemarque has a huge amount of experience in this kind of execution; the aesthetic approach could hardly be more different from Tearaway Unfolded, but it will also no doubt put controllers through their paces.

Wild

The last of the trio of new games teased at the end of the show was perhaps the most intriguing. Michel Ancel, the legendary creator central to Beyond Good and Evil and the Rayman series, announced at the end of July the foundation of Wild Sheep Studio, a new, 13-strong developer based in Montpelier, France, working on an unnamed project. Ancel was to remain in a Molyneuxish role at Ubisoft, while also developing his... Godus, I suppose, to extend the metaphor.

It turns out that this Godus is Wild, a PlayStation 4 exclusive set in a sandbox world the size of Europe. As well as primitive humans and magical races, Ancel promises in a blog post that every animal in the game world will be playable, be they fish or flesh.

This is all enigmatic as all get-out, and the CG trailer does little to illuminate how the game might actually play, resembling as it does the cast of Brave undergoing a shared acid trip. It appears that there will be combat, and hunting and ... skeletons.

Clearly, Wild is a long way from completion, but it could be the most interesting of all the revelations Sony made today - and certainly more interesting than the cardboard box skit Kojima was flown into Germany to deliver.

While there was plenty of spotlight for first person shooters - ex-Lionhead producer Jonty Barnes outlined a few new benefits for PlayStation players -and driving games, Sony's dizzying parade of game styles and aesthetics demonstrated the kind of freshness and commitment to smaller studios that has so far given it the upper hand in the battle for sales, and also for hearts and minds, in many corners of the gaming world.

With EA presenting tomorrow, GamesCom has seen both Microsoft and Sony build on their E3 presentations in interesting ways. From here - and next at the Eurogamer Expo in London - the run towards the holiday spending season begins in earnest.

I am currently a Contributing Editor at Wired Magazine in the UK, having written for Wired UK since its launch in 2009, and speak regularly on the impact of developing technologies on consumer behaviors at Wired Consulting events and elsewhere.